The book is structured as a speculative Earth observation backcasting report. Each double page pairs a photograph of spilled coffee stains with a rephotographed image from André Malraux’s The Imaginary Museum of World Sculpture III: The Christian World. Selected pages are further overlaid with fragments of maps from different times and places used as graphic residues rather than as navigational tools.
Each coffee stain is named after a visually corresponding Earth observation image documenting natural disasters, climate-related transformations, or sites of resource exploitation. These references draw from satellite imagery that records the material consequences of global warming and environmental degradation. Accompanying texts describe the observed surface phenomena.
The act of naming functions as a form of reversed fortune-telling. While traditional coffee-ground reading attempts to predict the future, The Residue Atlas links stains to satellite images that register what has already taken place—treating residues as evidence rather than omens.
The publication adopts the format of a large, heavy coffee table book. Its physical weight mirrors the gravity of the subject matter, while the familiar genre invites casual viewing and visual pleasure.
The project originates in a reflection on the excessive use of disposable coffee cups, the production of waste, and the entanglement of everyday consumption with the exploitation of natural resources and human labor. From this starting point, the work expands toward a broader inquiry into belief systems, productivity, and the role of coffee as an emblem of mental and physical extraction.
